Almost 10 years since it was killed off for good, it appears that one long-forgotten Borderlands MMO has a chance of coming back from the dead thanks to one dedicated fan.
I can hear your confusion already, "what Borderlands MMO?" You'd be totally forgiven if you'd never heard of it – titled Borderlands Online, the MMO was announced back in 2014 and was set to release exclusively in China.
Less than a year later, dreams for the game were crushed as 2K China was shut down. A statement was issued to GamesIndustry.biz at the time, saying that it was "determined that the additional time required to finish current projects at the studio, particularly Borderlands Online, would not yield a favorable return on investment."
You'd think that'd mark the end of the MMO for good, but as spotted by VG247, a glimmer of hope has emerged thanks to dataminer, modder, and game developer @EpicNNG on Twitter. Last week, the dataminer took to the platform with a big announcement: "BREAKING: I HAVE SUCCESSFULLY OBTAINED A BUILD OF THE CHINESE BORDERLANDS ONLINE MMO."
For a while, @EpicNNG was stuck on the MMO's login screen, despite having "a ton of good ideas to brute force" their way in. However, even after they "just kept running into walls," the dataminer was determined to make the long-lost game accessible to the masses: "Won't give up though, I'll make sure the community gets to experience this game one way or another."
Thankfully, it didn't take too long for the first major hurdle to be conquered, as @EpicNNG has gotten past the login screen and made it to the MMO's character creator. "Here is gameplay of the Character Creator in Borderlands ONLINE, running for the first time since it got shut down," they share. "Customization for each character is rather limited, but cool regardless. So surreal to have access to this in 2025."
Here is gameplay of the Character Creator in Borderlands ONLINE, running for the first time since it got shutdown.Customization for each character is rather limited, but cool regardless.So surreal to have access to this in 2025. pic.twitter.com/8ga6U1gpe8April 29, 2025
For now, you apparently get "stuck on an infinite loading screen after making a vault hunter," but it sounds like this is just the start of a bigger project for @EpicNNG. "Since servers are dead, I think I'll go for the name 'Borderlands Offline,'" they ponder. "It will also need uncapped FPS, FOV changes, translating to English, and hopefully that's it. I guess you could say it needs a… Redux?"
From the outside, that frankly doesn't sound like a small amount of work – translation alone sounds like it could be quite a task. However, the fact that Borderlands fans now have a chance of playing something once lost to time is an enormous win.
Borderlands fans really can't stop winning, as only last week it was announced that Borderlands 4 is releasing 11 days earlier than previously expected. That's a much better situation than GTA fans have found themselves in, as Rockstar, on the other hand, announced that GTA 6 has been pushed back to next May.
In the meantime, be sure to check out our roundup of the best MMORPGs you can play right now.
